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Welcome to the SST Programming Manual

Welcome to the newly updated version of the Saitek Smart Technology profile editor. SST enables you to link keyboard keys, mouse buttons and mouse movement to the buttons and axes of your Saitek controller. When you press buttons on the controller, or move the joystick, SST will make key presses, mouse movements, and mouse clicks as if you had: typed keys on the keyboard, moved the mouse, or pressed mouse buttons yourself. This is all done without you having to take your hands off of the controller.

Games like Tomb Raider, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Dead Space and Race Driver: Grid, will have game controller support built into the game software. This will allow the controller to be automatically detected by the game you want to play. It also allows you to manually configure the controllers buttons and axes from within the game setup menu (see game manual for how to configure controllers).

Some games, however, do not support game controllers - for example, Call of Duty 4. These games only understand key presses, mouse movements and mouse clicks. SST therefore lets you play these games using your Saitek controller.

In addition, some games, although they understand controllers, use additional keyboard commands that can be programmed to your controller using SST. For example flight simulators like FSX and IL-2.

This guide gives you the basic knowledge to get you up and running as soon as possible, with the least amount of stress and confusion that any new software can often cause.

Profile Management

SST allows you to assign the keyboard and mouse commands from your game, to your controller. This set of assignments can then be saved as a document, called a profile. Your controller will require a profile for each game you want play.

Our website contains ready made profiles for the latest games releases. These need to be downloaded to your Saitek SD6 Profile folder. If you are using XP, this is in the Shared Documents folder, Vista users will find theirs in Public Documents. This is the easiest way to get up and running.

Your profiles can be managed via the Saitek Controller icon, in your taskbar, next to the clock.

Click this icon to reveal the profile menu. All profiles in your profile folder will be displayed in this menu (e.g CrysisALLPADS). Left click the profile that you want to activate. Your device icon will turn green, when a profile is active

If you want to familiarize yourself with the controls in the profile, right click it and select ‘Edit in Profile Editor’. Press a button on your controller and it will highlight the corresponding button cell and show you what that button does in the game.

To test your profile click the little cog icon, , in the Profile Editor, to check you buttons are responding correctly.

This is the bare minimum required for you to get up and running. If the game you want to play does not appear in the profile list, or you want to make amendments and even start one from scratch, then the following information will get you on your way.

Quick start to programming

You should already have installed the SST software and plugged in your controller for the first time. If you haven't, install the SST software from the Saitek website or installation disc and then plug the USB cable of your controller into one of your computer's free USB ports.

When you have plugged your controller in, the Profiler icon will appear in the taskbar next to your clock every time your controller is plugged in. The Profiler icon could be a joystick, wheel, gamepad etc depending on which controller is plugged in. If you have more than one Saitek controller plugged in at the same time, you will have a separate icon for each controller. When you hold your mouse cursor over the small icon a pop-up tooltip will tell you to which controller the icon refers.

We’re using a Saitek Cyborg X Flight Stick for our example so the Profiler icon looks like a Cyborg X stick.

Profiler menu

Left-click on the Profiler icon to open the Profiler menu window. We’re going to create a profile first so click on the Profile Editor command. You can also launch the Profiler by clicking Start>All Programs> Profile Editor.

Advanced Tip :
- Clear Profile is used whenever you want to completely clear one of your controller profiles.
- Clear Startup clears a profile which has been set up as start-up profile .
- Control Panel opens the test and calibration screen for your controller.- www.saitek.com opens your browser and takes you to the Saitek website.

Profile editor

The Profile Editor automatically recognizes the controller you have plugged in and opens the window left showing a picture of the controller on the left and a list of its buttons and axes on the right. Our example uses the Cyborg X stick so the window shows the Cyborg X and its available buttons and axes. You can select another controller from the drop down menu at the top of the screen if you want to create a profile for another controller plugged into your PC or when no controller is plugged in(note: you can create and save a profile without a controller plugged in but you cannot test or profile it)

Move your mouse cursor over the buttons and controls of the controller in the picture - each button or part of the controller is highlighted when the mouse cursor is over it. This means that the button or control can be programmed and there is a cell for the button or axis on the right of the screen in which you can create a keyboard command.

You will notice that your mouse cursor changes to a hand when it is positioned over some of the buttons. If you left click your mouse when the hand is positioned over a button it highlights the corresponding cell on the right of the screen, ready to be programmed.

You can also press the buttons or move the axes on the controller itself. This automatically highlights the cell on the right, ready to be programmed.

Programming a keyboard command to a button or control

In this example, we’re going to program a very simple command to help when flying a plane in Microsoft FSX. We want to assign a simple command to our joystick buttons to speed up or slow down the simulation rate to speed up time when flying long distance. In FSX, simulation rate is increased by first pressing “R” on the keyboard followed by “+” or “-“.

We‘ve decided to make button 4 on the Cyborg X speed up simulation rate and button 2 slow down the simulation rate.

First, either press button 4 or click on it on the picture of the controller on the left of the window. This will highlight the button 4 cell on the right of the window. Left click on the highlighted cell with the mouse.

A cursor appears on the left of the cell as shown, indicating that you can input a keystroke. We’ve typed “R” followed by “shift” and “+” (held down at the same time) – the combination of commands which will accelerate simulation rate in FSX. Now click the green tick to the right of the cell to indicate you’re happy with the keystrokes you’ve input.

You’re now prompted to name the command. We’ve named our command “Accelerate sim rate”. Hit return when you’ve named the command. The cell now displays “Button 4 = Accelerate sim rate”. If you have made a mistake in naming the keystroke or want to change it, highlight the text and edit it or right click and click Delete.

If you want to delete one of the keystrokes you have programmed, click on it and hit delete on your keyboard or right click on one of the keystrokes and select Delete from the menu. If you want to delete all keystrokes, select Delete All.

The software is now telling us that button 4, when pressed, will initiate “R” and “+” – the FSX command to accelerate simulation rate.

You have just created the first command for your controller.

Testing the profile

To test the command, click the Test Profile icon at the top of the Profile Editor Screen.

This opens the testing window. Press the button or control you’ve programmed and you will see the command you’ve created. In our example, pressing button 4 on the Cyborg X initiates “R” followed by “Shiftkey” and “+”. The grey “R” and “+ Shiftkey” mean the “R” and “Shiftkey” keystrokes will also be released after being pressed.

We also want to program button 2 to slow down the simulation rate. Once again, we press button 2 on the controller or click on button 2 on the picture of the controller to highlight the button 2 cell on the right (or just click on the button 2 cell). When the cursor is blinking we type the decelerate simulation rate command “R” followed by “-” and click on the green tick. We’ve named the command “Decelerate sim rate” and then hit return. Opening the profile tester and pressing button 2 on the joystick shows the command is correct. Click on OK to return to the Profile Editor.

At this stage you may wish to print your profile as a quick reference to the commands you’ve programmed. To do this, click the printer icon at the top of the window.

Saving the profile

To save this very simple profile, click on the Save icon at the top of the window.

You will be prompted to name the profile and save it in the folder which contains all the profiles you’ve created – “Saitek SD6 Profiles”. We’ve called our profile FSX1. Next, to load that profile for your controller, click on the profile icon at the top of the window

You’ll notice that the controller icon at the bottom left of your toolbar now has a green background. This is to show that you have assigned a profile to that controller.

Whenever you plug your controller in for the first time, to start using the profile, click the controller icon, and select the profile you have created – “FSX1” in our example. Now, when we launch Micosoft FSX, button 4 on the Cyborg X will accelerate the simulation rate and button 2 will decelerate it.

The profile we have created is very basic but shows the main principles of creating profiles using SST. Saitek has created useful profiles for most major PC games which are available to download from www.saitek.com. Although these profiles use most of the features of the SST software - and can be quite complicated - even if you’re new to programming using SST it’s still a useful exercise to load a sample profile for the game you want to play on your controller and then edit according to your preferences.